"Relatively simple metrics like the percentage of students repaying their loans on time might be important as consumers weigh whether or not they will be able to handle their financial obligations after attending a specific school," the Education Department said in the document released Friday.

President Barack Obama in 2013 announced the move to start rating colleges as part of a plan to curb the growing cost of higher education and runaway student loan debt and to improve job prospects for college students.

The college rating system would classify colleges as high-, low- or middle-perfoming.

Congressional Republicans and education trade groups opposed to the plan say it is a form of government overreach that would hurt colleges serving low-income students.

"If after nearly a year and half of work, this is all the Department can muster, it seems to support the long held belief by many in higher education that while a college rating system is admirable in theory, it is not feasible to create metrics that definitively assess the quality of so many institutions across the country," Steve Gunderson, president and chief executive of the Association of Private Sector Colleges and Universities, said in a statement.

The federal government provides more than $150 billion in student aid annually.
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